AuthorTopic: 2D Platform Character Animation  (Read 5163 times)

Offline Kamillo

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2D Platform Character Animation

on: March 01, 2014, 05:03:39 pm
Here is a my second try to make animations for my Main Character.



I think the Jump animation its kinda cool but overall i think i must work at idle and run. I use Photoshop for my animation but maybe there are better programms out there.
Any suggestions? :)

Im really thankfull to all feedback and help.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2014, 05:27:35 pm by Kamillo »

Offline Conzeit

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Re: 2D Platform Character Animation

Reply #1 on: March 01, 2014, 08:46:48 pm
you kidding me? your nick is my real name with an extra l and a k instead of a c, and one of your first posts is about animation? bizarre. I think the first art I posted here was a jump animation :p. Only strange thing is you're at germany, is Camilo a common name over there too? doubt it...tal vez eres hispano pero te mudaste?

anyways.
most pixelart animator guys use Graphics Gale for animation (me included) there's also Cosmigo Promotion which is a bit more cumbersome to get into but it has it's own advantages, it can turn any animation into a brush which should be usfeul for effects and making backgrounds.

animation looks ok, it's functional in a limited sort of way. I dont think there's anything wrong but clearly you want to make it cooler. Do you have any major influences? is your idea of cool movment SuperBros of Sword&Sworcery? or Ohira of Kid's Syory? (just taking wild guesses from the thick character with the thin limbs)

one thing that strikes me right away is that there's no fully redrawn frames, this is not wrong but it's a limitation when you compare it to hand drawn animation where that would never happen.  You dont have to redraw EVERY frame but  try to redraw the key poses that are important for the animation, that way your pixels dont look inferior to hand drawn animation.
for example when he's running he's still half facing the camera, it's customary in games but it makes the run look half assed. He's got sot of a ninja run with the arms by the side but the arms just wobble behind him and he's still facing the camera, I cant tell if you want a half-hearted run (Cause he's a lazy rabbit or whatever) or if you want a ninja run.

if it's a ninja run he should be looking straight to the side and with his torso more lowered, when ninjas run they seem like they're being suspended by their torsos and their legs go really fast to the point of motion blur below them this is an extremely simple ninja run but it makes the point.

I agree that the ilde is boring. Breathing ildes just say nothing about the character and I have a hard time picturing that at all outside of games. Again it's not wrong it' super common but if you want to make him cooler you can defenitively do something else there. if you dont want to you could just have more frames in the same anim to make it smoother, it could work

you can have him do a loop of animation but try to have some intent behind it, try to think why the guy would do that eeevery time he stopped
http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters3/ramon-a.html this is a character that pulls it off, he has a sort of dancey ilde but when he walks it looks like a modification of that dance, so it makes sense that he's doing that to be able to quickly move if he wants to attack or avoid.

if you're not gonna have him do a looped ilde, maybe you could have him do a transition from fight-stance to regular stance, that gives him some more character, it's fitting for a character that tries to have some composure.

These anims communicate more character than regular breathing, that's something I try to think about when I make an animation, I try to think of wether this is a guy that fights calmly or angrily, wether he's precise or sloppy, etc.

You have a human-bunny here, if I had a character like that I'd try to find an interesting inbetwen point between human motion and bunny motion, watch videos of bunnies moving around and imagine what a hybrid of that and humans would be like, then animate that.

So, dunno that's some rambling of what I would maybe do with this if I was tasked with changing the animations, but it's all your decision which is why I'd like to know what you think is really cool movment, what it is you're trying to reach towards with this, so please do tell.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2014, 10:10:26 pm by Conceit »

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: 2D Platform Character Animation

Reply #2 on: March 01, 2014, 11:45:17 pm
Kamillo, I think that previous version of running animation was better. In jump animations his ears move, but in running they are still which is odd. Also maybe double jump should have some interesting transition between first and second jump just to spice it up (flip, fist forward superman takeoff, some unusual twitch that make him move upward etc.)  :)

EDIT: Your previous idle animation, was also better then current one. :(
« Last Edit: March 03, 2014, 12:37:49 am by HarveyDentMustDie »

Offline Coltrane

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Re: 2D Platform Character Animation

Reply #3 on: March 02, 2014, 11:42:55 pm
You have a human-bunny here, if I had a character like that I'd try to find an interesting inbetwen point between human motion and bunny motion, watch videos of bunnies moving around and imagine what a hybrid of that and humans would be like, then animate that.
:y:

Kamillo, I think that previous version of running animation was better. In jump animations his ears move, but in running they are still which is odd. Also maybe double jump should have some interesting transition between first and second jump just to spice it up (flip, fist forward superman takeoff, some unusual twitch that make him move upward etc.)  :)
I second that opinion, you're first run animation was much better. What was bothering me in it was his left arm which was moving a bit too much, like if it was just some cloth without a real arm in it.

Offline Kamillo

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Re: 2D Platform Character Animation

Reply #4 on: March 04, 2014, 02:41:18 pm
thanks for the great feedback!

@Conceit
Hey Camilo, ;) No this its not my real name its just a nick that i saw for really long time ago in the tv. The show had the name Don Camillo and Peppone. After that i watched the movie Don Camillo with Terrance Hill. It was funny and that i use very ofen Kami in Japano Games, i changed from Camillo to Kamillo. Thats all! :D

Back to Topic, my story is simple and a bit like good old RPG's.

The Story brings us to the sky, there are villages on flying islands.
There live human-like animals and we began our journey on a small island called "" :P
There is a small House with a Lazy rabbit in it and he works normaly for the "" but he dreams from big adventure and want to travel to all islands in the sky.

this is the really short version of a script. Its a bit hard for me with my bad english, sorry :D

And yeah he should normaly run a bit like a ninja. I bought graphicsgale and tried what i can do it with it.
Here are small changes but not done i have problems with the arms and the ears. Maybe some one can help me.



@HarveyDentMustDie
Thanks for the feedback, problem with the run animation was that i have but it in my game and saw that the ears look that they disapear from idle to run. :(
But here are the old ones maybe there is a way to put it all together with jump and idle animation.



@Coltrane, @Conceit
I watched roger rabbit, some bugs bunny(spacejam for example) and some documentarys about rabbits.

@Coltrane
Yeah my run animations are still not so good but i tried to make it better in the new one.

/update
« Last Edit: March 05, 2014, 02:20:07 pm by Kamillo »

Offline Conzeit

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Re: 2D Platform Character Animation

Reply #5 on: March 26, 2014, 08:28:26 pm
hahah. that was great to hear, I was so curious about the nick.

hm I'm afraid I led you to making the animation stiffer...which wasnt really what I meant to do =/

you should probably have your guy lean forward a bit more...

here's a quick edit. on the airborne frame I rasied him quite a lot so it looks more hoppy, on the contact frame I made him far more hunched over. obviously a very quck drag&drop job

also, watching something so far from your style like roger rabbit or bugs bunny probably wont help you, they are way goofier and in a completely different style so their movement probably wont help

for example check this random yt bunny vid http://youtu.be/qM9YWm6T_hc?t=33s http://youtu.be/qM9YWm6T_hc?t=3m
you get jumps from a few angles there. watch those jumps several times, pick a favorite, frame step it if you can...make a gif...try to really get in there deep.
from watching those jumps I can see that when they jump their back legs propulse backwards a LOT, sometimes even over their heads while their torso very carefully turns as as they reach the peak of their jump, almost drawing the arch of motion, then they end in a very hunched over pose with their front legs pushed forwards togther very gracefully and finally they land.

you can use all of that. for example for the double jump you could have him at first make a human jump pretty much like what you have, and then a more rabbitlike jump by raising his legs backwards a lot and finish with a very hunched over pose where his legs are poised forwards toether catch his landing. That's just an idea though. if after watching the real rabbits jump you come up with your own that's even better.